Recently Retired And Looking For Side Income? Could Buying And Reselling Gold Be The Key To Security?
If you're like many recently retired Americans, you may be a bit nervous about the amount you've put aside to support yourself -- particularly if your crystal ball that predicts future economic moves and interest rates seems to be on the fritz. On the other hand, the idea of returning to full-time (or even part-time) work may be unappealing. With the price of gold continuing to rise, could purchasing scrap gold from consumers and reselling to wholesale buyers be a feasible source of income? Read on to determine whether buying scrap gold could be a good way to earn some additional cash in your spare time, as well as find out what you'll need to get started in this business.
Is buying and reselling scrap gold a feasible way to earn money?
During the recession, the popularity of gold-purchasing storefronts boomed -- as the economy continued to drop, the price of gold rose, making the sale of scrap gold seem like a great idea for consumers who were struggling due to job loss or other recession-related financial strife. These stores generally transact business by measuring the gold content in the jewelry or other items brought in by a consumer, making a cash offer (based on the content of gold and the ease of extracting it), and then either refining the gold on site or shipping it off to a refinery to be melted down and purified.
Even if you don't want the responsibility of your own cash-for-gold store, you may be able to transact business in the privacy of your own home -- either by soliciting scrap jewelry online (providing a postage-paid envelope to the customer) or by advertising locally and meeting potential customers at a neutral location or at your house itself.
Because purchasing scrap jewelry from your home can help you avoid much of the overhead of a storefront business, it's likely this venture will be a profitable one for you. Even if you don't enjoy as much success as you might like, you shouldn't lose any money in the process.
What will you need to get started?
Unless you plan on only accepting pure gold jewelry (which generally contains a 10K, 14K, or 24K stamp), you'll need some way to test the quality of scrap jewelry to ensure you're not overpaying. Fortunately, a gold testing kit with nitric acid and a streak stone (available at many jewelry stores and hobby shops) should help you easily distinguish between 10K and 24K gold in just a few seconds. To test the gold, you'll need to rub it on the streak stone gently, then place a drop of nitric acid on the residue left. If the residue remains unchanged, you're dealing with pure gold; if the streak turns brown, you're probably dealing with a gold mix, while streaks that completely disappear under the nitric acid are not gold at all.
You'll also need a small scale to weigh the scrap gold, as well as a lockbox for the cash you'll be providing in exchange for the gold, and a ledger to keep track of profits for your income taxes. If you're planning to accept gold by mail, you'll want to invest in some sturdy envelopes that can be inexpensively sent out to customers and shipped back to you. You'll also want to have a clear policy regarding returns of jewelry that isn't pure gold or that has a gold content so low it's not worth refining.
To avoid the security risk of keeping large sums of cash in your home, you may want to make daily deposits or request that appointments be made by anyone who expects to transact more than a certain dollar amount of scrap gold.
For more information about making money by selling gold, contact a company like Rocky Mountain Gold & Silver Exchange.